The employer must immediately report severe occupational accidents to both the police and to the Occupational Safety and Health Division of the Regional State Administrative Agency. The notification duty is based on the Act on Occupational Safety and Health Enforcement and Cooperation on Occupational Safety and Health at Workplaces.

The occupational accident is severe if the employee dies or if he or she suffers a permanent or severe injury. Severe injuries are for example:

• long bone fractures or fractures which may need surgery, difficult spinal fractures, viscerocranial fractures, multiple rib fractures and hemothorax, severe skull compound fractures, severe fractures to neck, chest or lumbar spine
• severe dislocation causing permanent injury
• loss of limb for example a finger or part of it, shortening of limb
• injury to the abdominal cavity organs requiring surgery
• brain injury leaving also light injuries
• loss or permanent weakening of speech, sight or hearing, loss of eyes
• burn or similar injuries to skin requiring skin transplantation, extensive burns or frostbites
• severely disfiguring deformities, for example loss of ear lobe or nose or part of it or other severe deformity
• permanent severe health harm or a life-threatening disease or lesion.

When the final severeness of the injury is not clear, the accident must be reported, as the nature of the injuries may become clear only through later examinations.

Serious injuries must also be reported to the police, who must conduct a police investigation at the scene of the accident.

Neglecting to report an accident to the Regional State Administrative Agency and the police is a penal offence as well as not reporting all accident to the insurance company.

The Occupational Safety and Health authority investigates all severe occupational accidents

The Act on the OSH Enforcement obliges the OSH authorities to investigate all severe occupational accidents they are notified of. In general, the OSH authority does not investigate accidents occurring between the home and the workplace in areas or situations where the employer´s responsibility for the safety is minor or non-existent.

The OSH authorities urgently investigate occupational accidents which they have been notified about. In the investigation, the course of events as well as the cause of the occupational accident and the crucial factors preventing similar accidents will be analysed.